Now This

Carl Nelson

1958 - 2004

The Nelson family has had another loss.

My brother, Carl, passed away sometime yesterday in his apartment in Arizona of some kind of seizure (stroke? heart? anyurism?). He was 46, the youngest of us Nelson children. He worked the night shift for a local community college in the computer department for at least a decade. He never married.

Unfortunately, Carl and my father did not get along; aside from three brief visits at the time of our mother's death in 2001 he did not have contact with our family these past 12 or so years despite our attempts to reach out to him. We were hoping that after my dad passed he might re-establish contact with his sisters, but I guess it won't happen in this life.

He was 7-years my junior and so our only real time together was when we were kids. There was no specific estrangement between the two of us, but we were mostly strangers to each other. He had 'adopted' a different set of 'parents' and 'siblings' within his circle of friends over the past decade or so and ignored us. This made me sad, and a little angry, because I could see how this hurt my parents, particularly my father. Otherwise, my hope was that he found happiness in the path he chose for his life.

Somehow, although I'm shaken and sad, I'm not all that surprised by the news. I had an inner 'sense' about Carl these past several months since my dad's death, as though he was somehow already gone too.

Rest in Peace.